No Arabic abstract
Recent claims point out that possible violations of Lorentz symmetry appearing in some semiclassical models of extended matter dynamics motivated by loop quantum gravity can be removed by a different choice of canonically conjugated variables. In this note we show that such alternative is inconsistent with the choice of variables in the underlying quantum theory together with the semiclassical approximation, as long as the correspondence principle is maintained. A consistent choice will violate standard Lorentz invariance. Thus, to preserve a relativity principle in this framework, the linear realization of Lorentz symmetry should be extended or superseded.
A simple model is constructed which allows to compute modified dispersion relations with effects from loop quantum gravity. Different quantization choices can be realized and their effects on the order of corrections studied explicitly. A comparison with more involved semiclassical techniques shows that there is agreement even at a quantitative level. Furthermore, by contrasting Hamiltonian and Lagrangian descriptions we show that possible Lorentz symmetry violations may be blurred as an artifact of the approximation scheme. Whether this is the case in a purely Hamiltonian analysis can be resolved by an improvement in the effective semiclassical analysis.
We explicitly construct and characterize all possible independent loop states in 3+1 dimensional loop quantum gravity by regulating it on a 3-d regular lattice in the Hamiltonian formalism. These loop states, characterized by the (dual) angular momentum quantum numbers, describe SU(2) rigid rotators on the links of the lattice. The loop states are constructed using the Schwinger bosons which are harmonic oscillators in the fundamental (spin half) representation of SU(2). Using generalized Wigner Eckart theorem, we compute the matrix elements of the volume operator in the loop basis. Some simple loop eigenstates of the volume operator are explicitly constructed.
Short-range experiments testing the gravitational inverse-square law at the submillimeter scale offer uniquely sensitive probes of Lorentz invariance. A combined analysis of results from the short-range gravity experiments HUST-2015, HUST-2011, IU-2012, and IU-2002 permits the first independent measurements of the 14 nonrelativistic coefficients for Lorentz violation in the pure-gravity sector at the level of $10^{-9}$ m$^2$, improving by an order of magnitude the sensitivity to numerous types of Lorentz violation involving quadratic curvature derivatives and curvature couplings.
The canonical ``loop formulation of quantum gravity is a mathematically well defined, background independent, non perturbative standard quantization of Einsteins theory of General Relativity. Some among the most meaningful results of the theory are: 1) the complete calculation of the spectrum of geometric quantities like the area and the volume and the consequent physical predictions about the structure of the space-time at the Plank scale; 2) a microscopical derivation of the Bekenstein-Hawking black-hole entropy formula. Unfortunately, despite recent results, the dynamical aspect of the theory (imposition of the Wheller-De Witt constraint) remains elusive. After a short description of the basic ideas and the main results of loop quantum gravity we show in which sence the exponential of the super Hamiltonian constraint leads to the concept of spin foam and to a four dimensional formulation of the theory. Moreover, we show that some topological field theories as the BF theory in 3 and 4 dimension admits a spin foam formulation. We argue that the spin-foams/spin-networks formalism it is the natural framework to discuss loop quantum gravity and topological field theory.
We discuss constraint structure of extended theories of gravitation (also known as f(R) theories) in the vacuum selfdual formulation introduced in ref. [1].